Interview Of Muhammad Aamir, President of Islamic Fraternity with MSMC

Main aims and objectives of "Islamic Fraternity"

 

Islamic Fraternity is an organisation of Muslim students, Islamic Fraternity is the voice of muslim students for peace, Harmony and Fraternity...........

Main aims and objectives of Islamic Fraternity

1)      To Educate Humans to humanize.

2)      To Provide Humans humanitarian services, espacilly to deserving students of the society.

3)      Mutual enjoying of Humans to truth and Patience.

Widow Remarriage & The responsibilities of our faith

 

By Mushtaq  ul Haq Ahmad Sikander

The question of Widow Remarriage though considered a social taboo was broken on 2^nd May 2010 when a social reformatory seminar was organized by Islamic Fraternity(IF) a Social & Religious  organization run by youth in S.P College Auditorium Srinagar. I was privileged to be one of the participants. I was first of all disheartened to see that only a handful of concerned conscious people present whereas it is a burning social problem which needs to be addressed and debated about by all. A number of religious scholars and activists were supposed to speak but only a few turned up like the audience because they are more concerned with fuelling internecine sectarian strifes than addressing something concrete.

  Dr Abdul Latif Al Kindi a famous religious scholar of Kashmir spoke about the prophetic model of addressing the issue of widow remarriage but was factual enough to acknowledge the social constraints and obstacles in achieving the same. To make his point more clear he quoted an example of a scholar who wrote a book on polygamy though he didn’t took a second wife himself but was socially outcaste by his friends and relatives. Islam describes the best model to tackle this problem but we by our deeds malign these universal teachings thus making their implementation impossible.

  Dr Zafar ul Islam Khan Editor The Milli Gazette who was the Chief Guest on this occasion discussed about the widening sex ratio divide in India which is due to female feticide but in Kashmir Militancy and other reasons are responsible for the same. He said though there are no official figures about the correct number of widows in valley still if they are even less in number as claimed it is a problem which needs to be ratified. He delved on various practical steps needed to be taken in this direction like setting up more institutions which can look after the widows and orphans because due to their scarcity many orphans are sent to other institutions outside J&K where they become culturally alienated and when they come back they are strangers in their own motherland. Discussing the taboo of widow remarriage he went on to say that it has some influence from Hinduism because in Hinduism the widow remarriage is shunned. Also he asked for shunning the extravagance in marriages and organizing group marriages so that cost may be lowered. Though he repeatedly emphasized that Kashmiris should have been a role model and Ideal for the whole Indian Muslims but they have failed to grow and inculcate among themselves the teachings of Islam which could have made them the leaders of Muslims in the subcontinent.

  Dr Hamid Naseem Rafiabadi Director Shah e Hamdan Institute of Islamic Studies Kashmir University lambasted the Ulama and Scholars for their apathy and reluctance to actively discuss, debate and solve this problem of widows which if not delved properly will eat away the vitals of society and create social problems like prostitution, juvenile delinquency and drug addiction. He called for the social activism by the Ulama & unless they will fail to do so, educate people about the same as well as implement it in their lives nothing is going to change.  

The Young President of Islamic Fraternity (IF) Muhammad Aamir was vociferous to impress the demands and steps needed to be initiated in the direction of Widow remarriage especially much is expected from the youth and N.G.O’s who mostly are paper work organizations with little or no efforts on the ground work and grass root levels as they mostly concentrate their material and monetary assets to raise buildings instead of institutions.

  The seminar wasn’t a monologue but questions were raised after every presentation by the speakers thus making the discussion vibrant and fruitful. Thus this seminar must prove a watershed in course of our social norms. Though the flag of social reforms must have been initiated by the conscious civil society but they are entangled in different issues but it is heartening that youth are becoming the torch bearers of the new enlightenment but still we have to tread a lot and face a stiff opposition in order to realize our dream of widow remarriage.   Though in near future I can’t see a drastic change in this direction still we must strive for excellence and harness every opportunity to make the change possible for the same.

(  Mushtaq Ul Haq Ahmad Sikander is Writer-Activist & presently student of Masters Program Of Political Science )